Three people arrested after diabetic grandmother dies following Chinese 'slap treatment'

Three people have been arrested after a diabetic grandmother died following controversial Chinese “slap treatment” at a country retreat.

Danielle Carr-Gomm was found dead hours after taking part in the so-called “Self-Healing Workshop” at Cleeve House country hotel in Seend, Wiltshire.

The treatment is supposed to eradicate illness-causing toxins from the body by hard, repeated slapping, fasting and painful stretching on a bench, a technique called Paida-Lajin.

We are currently treating her death as suspiciousWiltshire Police

The 71-year-old woman, who suffered from Type 1 diabetes, is said to have had a lifelong fear of needles and had briefly stopped taking her insulin after undergoing previous workshops.

Wiltshire police said Mrs Carr-Gomm’s death was being treated as suspicious and that inquiries are ongoing.

Three people - a 64-year-old woman, a 51-year-old man and a 53-year-old man - have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, a spokesman said.

An inquest was also opened and adjourned at Salisbury Coroner’s Court on Friday.

The weeklong course, which costs up to £750, was run by Hongchi Xiao, originally from Beijing, who has previously been questioned by Australian police over the death of a seven-year-old diabetic boy in Sydney.

Watch | What is diabetes? In 60 seconds

01:06

No charges followed that incident, however Mr Xiao has been fined by Taiwanese authorities for “promoting folk remedies”.

According to a detailed blog Mrs Carr-Gomm wrote about her diabetes, the Wiltshire retreat was the second by Mr Xiao she had attended this year.

In July she took part in a workshop in Bulgaria, where she was a home-owner, writing that by the end of her first slapping, or “paida” session, “large areas of my body were bruised blue which indicated that a lot of “sha” or poisoned blood and toxins had been released”.

She also endured “Lajin” - forcible stretching on a bench - for two minutes which she wrote “felt like agony and an eternity”.

My hope is that a second and perhaps third group workshop will help me to heal completelyDanielle Carr-Gomm

The blog describes how Mrs Carr-Gomm, from Lewes in East Sussex, then decided to stop taking insulin for the following two days.

Missing doses of the hormone, which many diabetics take to regulate blood sugar levels, can be fatal.

After discovering her readings were “sky high” she resumed her injections.

“My hope is that a second and perhaps third group workshop will help me to heal completely”, she wrote.

The grandmother was discovered dead at 3am by a woman who was also on the Wiltshire workshop and with whom Mrs Carr-Comm was sharing a room.

Her son Matthew, 43, told the Mail on Sunday his mother had been “a victim of false hope”.

“I am certain that if she hadn’t gone on this course, she would still be alive today,” he said.

“She had a lifelong fear of needs so diabetes was probably the worst illness she could get.